ACT Is The First Territory To Pass R18+ Legislation

With R18+ Legislation successfully passed through Federal government, all that's left is for each state to put through its own separate legislation in order to prepare for the R18+ classification's January 2013 start date. Yesterday it was announced that ACT was the first territory to pass that legislation.

According to the ABC, the legislation passed with complete tri-partisan support.

"This is about making sure that adults are able to view and play and read what they wish as long as it does not do harm to others," said ACT's Attorney General Simon Corbell.

"An R18+ classification ensures that adults can access adult material in computer game form, but at the same time protecting children under the age of 18 from that material."

ACT was the first to set its own legislation in motion, actually moving forward before the Federal bill was amended, now its up to the rest of the states to follow suit.

But according Jane Fitzgerald, all state parliaments have agreed to the timetable — with some states "very advanced" in their own progress.

"All censorship ministers have agreed on the timetable," said Fitgerald, earlier this year, "so I’m operating on the assumption that they’ll all get the job done,” said Jane. “We know, from keeping in touch with our state and territory based colleagues that people are at various stages of advancement with getting the legislation drafted to be passed. All of the jurisdictions have sitting period in the second half of the year, so they can all potentially get it done."

What happens if they don't?

"I’m choosing for the moment, to operate on the basis that it’ll be done. So let’s cross that bridge when we hopefully don’t come to it!"

Comments

Trjn Guest

Aug 24, 2012, 9:22am

The only states that might be a problem are Queensland and Victoria.

Victoria because they made a fuss about things before the amendment, so they might have some variation that isn't quite the real deal (stickers!).

Queensland because it's a new government. The Newman government is an unknown quantity on this one and their blatant pandering to the ACL is not a promising sign. That's not to say that it won't pass, just that we might see some restrictions on displaying R18+ games publicly.

All guesswork. Just starting my morning coffee and more than happy to be wrong.

nah, telltale games didn't release it because aus didn't have an R18 classification at the time. hopefully with a new rating, they'll see that there's money to be made by re-classifying the game for the neglected console players over here.

This is a valid point. Infact, a number of poly's have even said that this doesn't mean that stuff which was previously RC would pass ni the future. Just means things that shouldn't have made it to ma15+ will be pushed into r18.

And Nige endorses Unicron's endorsement. I live in Canberra and we had ACT Attorney General, Simon Corbell on our radio show this morning, explaining how it all works, on both a state and federal level. Happy to send a copy to the naysayers! Have a good weekend, everyone!

All states have already fucking agreed to pass legislation ready for implementation by 01/01/2013. It has been over a decade and it is coming into effect. Stop being so cynical for once and be happy, new governments are irrelevant because the plan has already been signed and agreed to. They are unable to back peddle due to the Federal legislation regarding the unanimous co-operation of all states and territories.

Also, if some of you down right LAZY people use Google, you'll be able to see the difference between the current legislation and the future legislation. It is NOT a case of changing MA content to R18 content. At present impact of content can be no more than "strong" now it can be "high" which is in-line with movies. The ONLY stupid part of the legislation is that it specifically says if drug usage is directly related to incentives or rewards, it'll still be banned, a little line implemented by one of the states obsessed with an anti-drug policy.

But when all is said and done, I import ALL of my games anyway. So I really don't give a fuck about this R rating bullshit any more, it's beneath me. But I just thought you ill-informed kids who are unable to use google should know a few facts before going into the usual cynical / sensationalist mood. I hate politicians but you people really need to look at the facts as they are before commenting.

Only logged in users may vote for comments!

Get Permalink

Trending Stories Right Now

Today, how you feel about panty shots can determine how you feel about anime as a whole. And it's not just panty shots. In the blockbuster anime Food Wars, women's clothes burst off their bodies when they taste an exquisite bite of steak. Skirts often don't cover the bottom halves of women's butts in Prison School. Breasts are regularly the first body part to enter a shot in Is It Wrong to Try to Pick Up Girls in a Dungeon?. In the West, the practice of lacing gratuitous sexuality -- and especially female sexuality -- into an anime is known as "fan service". Love it or hate it, anime studios have made a conscious effort to feature "fan service" in most of this year's Western-subbed anime titles.